10 Things You Didn’t Know About Sending Aid to North Korea

Do you want to send aid to North Korea, but want to make sure your donation actually helps kids in need? You may wonder if it’s even possible. For 19 years, people like you have sent aid to children and orphans in North Korea through Holt International — winter weather, emergency food and disaster relief aid that saves children’s lives.

Want to learn more? Here are ten things you might not know about sending aid to North Korea.

1. Of all North Korean people, children living in orphanages are the most vulnerable. Most orphanages in North Korea severely lack the basics that children need. And without a family to protect them and look after their needs, orphans in North Korea are fighting for survival.

2. Through Holt International, generous people like you can feed and protect children living in two orphanages and one daycare center in North Korea. You can give other items in addition to emergency food relief to North Korea, including clothing, medicine, and warm coats and blankets. When you donate aid to North Korea, you help one of the approximately 2,300 children who rely on us for their basic needs.

3. Your gift through Holt will send emergency food relief to children living at orphanages in North Korea. The food we deliver directly to orphaned kids in North Korea includes bags of potatoes, onions, formula, corn and other basic grains. Some shipments, unfortunately, to comply with international aid sanctions, can only contain grain.

4. Apart from hunger, freezing temperatures are the biggest threat to children in orphanage care in North Korea. With few resources for heating, children in orphanages often spend the winter huddled in crowded rooms to try and stay warm.

5. You may be wondering, is it legal for Holt to send emergency relief to North Korea? The answer is yes! Through our trusted partner in China, we deliver humanitarian aid to children and orphanages in North Korea in full compliance with the North Korea Sanction Regulations under Section 501.512. The food, medicine, warm clothing and supplies we deliver is classified as EAR99.

6. How do we send aid to North Korea? After you give, our partners in China purchase the food, medicine, and warm coats and blankets and load your donated goods onto trucks. These trucks travel across the border directly to the orphanages we partner with in North Korea.

7. Every year from February to May is what North Koreans refer to as “the hungry months.” This is the time between planting and spring harvest, when flooding wipes out crops and diminishes an already depleted food supply, an unfortunately common occurrence that leaves little to no food for the population. We always make sure to send relief shipments during this time.

8. We know for certain that our shipments of food and other humanitarian aid makes it to the children. Our partners in China deliver the food directly to the orphanage storehouses, and they see a noticeable difference in their health each time they return. If the food and supplies weren’t reaching the children, survival rates would be low.

9. Occasionally, a Holt staff member receives permission to visit children in the orphanages you support in North Korea. This helps to confirm that the children do in fact receive the food relief and supplies you send. He says that after they receive the food and emergency relief, he can see “the light has returned to the children’s eyes.”

10. Children in North Korea need lifesaving food and supplies all year long, so it is always the right time to give. Through Holt International, you can give a one-time gift or recurring monthly gift to help these children who so desperately need it. Our shipments of food and other supplies can be sent once per month, and we need your help to fill those trucks as full as possible! Every $1 you give feeds a child for one day!